Arp 242 • NGC 4676A + NGC 4676B

Arp 242 is listed as an interacting galaxy system in the Arp catalog.

Challenge: Observing both tails and the differences in nuclear structure.

The upper galaxy is NGC 4676A, the lower one is NGC 4676B.

This project was captured over two nights, with a total of 5 hours recorded. The first session took place during the night of May 30–31 from 00:00 to 02:00, and the second session during the night of May 31–June 1 from 00:00 to 03:00. In the end, 60 frames were used, resulting in 3.3 hours of integrated exposure.

The first series was taken using the IDAS Nebula Booster filter. Although this produced nicely small stars, the faint tidal tail of NGC 4676B was almost invisible. Because the result felt a bit underwhelming, the filter was removed for the second series. Without the filter the stars became noticeably bloated, but the faint tidal structures finally appeared. For that reason, the galaxy pair from the second series was used as an inset on the main image of series 1.

No flats were used due to an issue with the light panel.

The final image contains 16 satellite trails.